Rockets, Lakers and Game 7: Why we care and what will be the difference (with today’s hoop links)

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These are the special times, the times that our devotion to sports actually makes sense.

These are the times we share. From the barbershops to the dentist offices, to the word or two dropped by the FM deejays between songs, we feel better in these moments when strangers have something to share.

We had this last season, during the 22-game winning streak. The championship years truly brought that feeling, especially on the night when Richmond filled with revelers that would never even consider torching Chevys as they had in other cities.

Now, at least for another day, and for weeks to come if the Rockets beat the Lakers one more time, we have it again.

You sit in the dentist chair and when the hygienist needs to make small talk, she says, “Did you see the Rockets the other night?’

At the University of Houston commencement exercise, the speaker mentions the Rockets and the graduates roar.

You drop your kid at his buddy’s house and the other dad at the door, Phil or Paul or something like that, says, “So, do you think we’ll win Game 7?”

You pick up the phone and your wife’s best friend goes on and on about Pau Gasol needing a shave.

Your mother-in-law, who normally cares no more about basketball than she does your choice of boxers or briefs, calls Phil Jackson “smug” and Aaron Brooks “cute.”

Your wife worries that Ron Artest might take too many 3s off the dribble when he clearly shoots a much higher percentage on catch-and-shoot attempts, especially on drive-and-kick passes off early dribble penetration. (This is one of the times you should nod and pretend you agree because it’s not worth a fight and she also happens to be right.)

We get these times occasionally, when a team can unite a city, and if the Rockets can keep winning, it will continue to grow. It’s like at a concert, when everyone in the crowd knows the words, and the singer holds out the microphone to signal everyone belt out their best harmonies. Strangers become united by something.

Usually, the second round of the playoffs is a bit early for this, though Denver feels it, and Cleveland has all season.

We’ve got that now, as the Rockets have become celebrated for their determination to succeed despite obstacles.

Fortitude is a quality universally admired, anyway, but perhaps these days, with real-life obstacles around every corner, their success has been easier to embrace. Even if it is all relatively meaningless when applied to the diversion of sports, the attribute that has sustained the Rockets is real and more important than ever over in the real world.

It does not take any special expertise to understand their story. Compared to the Lakers, who are so obviously gifted and celebrated, the winningest franchise in NBA history, the Rockets are short and short-handed. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, the players that the most disinterested are most likely to be able to name, are hurt. And yet the remaining Rockets have found a way to force a seventh game.

They play hard and for each other – the way we tell ourselves we would have had we ever had that chance – and with a youthful exuberance that is easy to see and share.

So we have gotten to that place again, when a community embraces a team. No city has ever watched a basketball game on ESPN in the numbers Houston did Game 6.

There is little question about why. These are the special times when a very large city becomes a community again and for a brief time, fun and games don’t see so insignificant, after all.

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In other words, this is pretty good stuff.

There are a few things we know heading into Game 7. The Rockets will have the same attitude, balanced between determined and relaxed, that has carried them this far.

The Lakers will feel pressure, which for Kobe Bryant is a good thing. The image of Bryant, in the national television matinee spotlight, wearing the Lakers’ Sunday whites and playing Game 7, is not a good one for the Rockets. Less certain, is how the assorted Lamar Odoms, Sasha Vujacics and Jordan Farmars of the Lakers will respond.

The Lakers are 12-1 in home Game 7s and have not lost a Game 7 in LA since Bill Russell’s last game 40 years and two Lakers homes ago. That and the Lakers Game 7 loss the next season in the Willis Reed game (and as always, I must add that Walt Frazier had one of the greatest games ever played that night) are two of the most celebrated games in league history.

But the Lakers’ losses in Game 7s will not matter any more than their home success. (Will it really help the Lakers that Vern Mikkelsen led Minneapolis to the ’52 and ’54 titles?) For that matter, the Rockets’ recent Game 7 losses won’t be a factor. (Chuck Hayes and Shane Battier are the only players from the Game 7 loss two seasons ago who will play today.)

For the Rockets, it seems now that Aaron Brooks needs to have a big game offensively. They likely will need Battier, Ron Artest or both hitting 3s. Artest can fire away when his 3s come from someone else’s dribble penetration. Off his own dribble, he needs to be very picky. The Rockets have to do the same job defensively on Bryant they have in the past two wins, which means Hayes absolutely must stay out of foul trouble to continue to step up in pick-and-rolls, to say nothing of to keep Pau Gasol from dominating.

The Rockets could probably use someone – Carl Landry, Von Wafer – to step up off the bench.

They absolutely must, must, must take care of the ball. The Lakers live to get in passing lanes and force turnovers. If they do, they will run, dunk and get on rolls.

The Lakers will likely need to play from in front. If they are trailing, the weight of expectations might actually become a factor. The team leading after the first quarter has won every game in this series (and in the Rockets’ first-round series, too). The Rockets would not mind if the Lakers start to feel some heat from a season spent with the championship the only worthwhile goal.

Expect the Lakers to double-team much harder off Hayes than their half-hearted efforts in Game 6, when they cheated off him, but did not really go hard to double-team. The Rockets might need Hayes to put in a layup or two to keep the Lakers defense honest. Either way, the Lakers will pack in the lane on Aaron Brooks and send help against Luis Scola. The Rockets need to score inside anyway.

As with the series as a whole, things are stacked against the Rockets. The home team wins 80 percent of NBA Game 7s. The Rockets remain short-handed. And if the Lakers really did take them lightly, surely by now they have learned a lesson or two.

The pattern of the season has been for the Rockets to be their best under such circumstances. They have not faced elimination on the road, however. This will be by far their toughest test. But the same qualities that got them here will be the key to going further.

• • •

What does it tell us if a team with less talent than the other team keeps winning? We have covered the determination and toughness that has marked the Rockets’ season, but the job Rick Adelman has been done has been phenomenal.

Now matter what happens today, his two Rockets teams have overachieved and improved through the season, the goals of coaching. His ability to not overreact to every bump to instead continue to work with his team and especially its young players has been the most irreplaceable key to this season.

• • •

On that subject, John Hollinger makes a case that Rick Adelman has outcoached Phil Jackson.

Bruce Jenkins argues the Lakers don’t even deserve to win, which seems a bit extreme but they really are a hard bunch to embrace.